Former Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush has sold his stake in his last two private consulting firms as he ramps up a likely bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
Bush sold his ownership stake in Jeb Bush & Associates and Britton Hill Partners LLC, a step that was finalized this month, said Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell, noting that “as he said he would,” Bush has been “reviewing his private sector commitments as he contemplates a potential run.
“This was a natural step as Governor Bush transitioned his time and focus from running his business to increasing his political efforts on behalf of conservative candidates and causes,” Campbell said.
Bush was president of Coral Gables, Fla.-based Jeb Bush & Associates, a business consulting firm he established after he left the governor’s office in 2007. The firm, which Bush ran with his son, Jeb Jr., advises a range of businesses from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.
The former two term governor was also one of two partners in Britton Hill Partners LLC, a consulting firm formed in 2008 and one of four partners in Britton Hill Holdings LLC, an investment and consulting company, established in 2013 as an extension of the consulting and advisory work Britton Hill Partners LLC had been doing.
The move to separate himself from his corporate holdings, comes as Bush increasingly steps up the pace on a potential presidential bid. He has boasted of his private sector background on the campaign trail, telling voters in Iowa over the weekend, that his record sets him apart from Washington politicians, giving him the experience of “signing the front side of a paycheck.”
Bush signaled in an address last month in Detroit that he’d seek to frame an economic argument that contrasts the problems of the poor under President Barack Obama and a pro-government approach, with what he said is the promise of a market-driven agenda.
He argued that Detroit’s woes echo those in the nation’s capital, citing “decades of big government policies, petty politics, impossible-to-meet pension promises, chronic mismanagement and broken services.“